Waiting
by America's Got Fandom
Summary: Hawkeye gets some dating advice from the person he least expected it from: Erin. HM. Oneshot. Fluff. What else can I say? Happy Valentine's Day!


**A/N: HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! I, personally, will be celebrating sweet, sugary chocolate and the love between and of fictional characters. Hope you enjoy this overly fluffy HM oneshot! Happy reading, and I hope you have a Happy Valentine's Day!**

"You're _dead._"

"Nice try, but I'll have you pegged down in…DANG IT!"

As hard as he tried, Hawkeye couldn't wrestle his thumb out from underneath Margaret's. Erin squealed and hugged Margaret from behind, shouting, "5…4…3…2…1! Aunt Margaret wins!"

Margaret's smirk was a bit too smug for Hawkeye's taste. "I don't know what happened! How do you keep beating me?" Handing Margaret her coffee mug, he continued ranting about his numerous defeats. "I beat everyone I play thumb war against. This shouldn't happen!"

Margaret ignored Hawkeye's sore losing and instead scooped up Erin into her lap. "What would you like to play now?"

Erin shook her head. The seven-year old wanted answers, and she wanted them _now. _She lay down on the couch, resting her head on Hawkeye's lap and her feet on Margaret's. "Are you guys married?"

"No, I'm too messy for her." Hawkeye ruffled Erin's hair, conveniently not seeing the soft glances that Margaret was giving him. "Why don't you change into your pajamas, then we'll tuck you in later."

Erin nodded and ran off to her room, her much-too-large bunny slippers almost falling off in the process. "I think we're pretty good babysitters," Margaret commented, looking to Hawkeye.

Hawkeye and Margaret were visiting BJ and Peg for a week, and insisted that the married couple have at least Valentine's night to themselves, promising to babysit Erin while they did. So far, Erin had no complaints. "Agreed. You know what else we would do well?" Hawkeye leaned close to her, close enough that his breath on her cheek was starting to send shivers down her spine.

"Do you ever stop?" she breathed through a smile, turning to look at him. That may have been a mistake; her lips were now mere _centimeters _from his. His arm found a place snug around her shoulder to rest, which just drew her in closer.

"Not yet," he replied.

"Are you _sure _you're not married?"

The couple, ahem, _companions _split as soon as Erin's adorably high-pitched voice hit their ears. "You change awfully fast, don't you?" Margaret asked. She smiled as Erin ran over to her, snuggling into her lap.

Erin played with Hawkeye's hand, making his fingers turn and bend as a little play thing. "If you aren't married, why do you always visit together?"

Hawkeye shifted so he was again right next to Margaret. He put his open arm around her, which enabled Margaret to rest her head on his shoulder. This did not help their argument against their state of relationship. "I'm just such a great travelling partner that she can't stay away from me."

Margaret rolled her eyes and decided not to even argue. It's not like she found it adorable when he sang in the car on their trip, or how he refused to let her drive, or the way he wouldn't let any gas station clerk even get near her. "Ok, enough of this, time for bed. Who do you want to tuck you in?"

Erin raised her tiny arms up in the air and shouted, "Both!"

#

"Major," Hawkeye set his mug down on the kitchen counter. "I think we make pretty good babysitters."

Margaret smiled and sat down at the kitchen table, cradling her hot mug in her hands. "I agree." After he'd sat down across from her and their feet (accidentally) touched, she asked, "Tired?"

"Nope." He leaned back in his chair. "You?"

Hawkeye couldn't help noticing the way her hair bounced as she shook her head, seeming to fall like a waterfall down her shoulders. He had called lots of women beautiful, but Margaret could give steal his breath away with a flick of her wrist. "Erin is so sweet. She likes you, can't imagine why." A small, well-meaning smirk followed Margaret's sentence.

"Yeah. I'm proud of Beej, he's been a great dad."

Margaret raised her mug. "And Peg has been a great mom."

"UNCLE HAWKEYE? AUNT MARGARET? CAN YOU COME UP HERE?"

Margaret and Hawkeye exchanged worried looks before rushing upstairs. They walked in, finding Erin sitting on her bed with her legs crossed, her chocolate brown hair in her face and a book on her lap. "Are you ok?" Margaret asked.

Erin nodded. "Uh huh. Can I talk to Uncle Hawkeye alone?" Subtlety; not Erin's specialty.

Margaret shrugged and looked up at Hawkeye. "I'll be downstairs." She got up on her toes to press a quick kiss on Hawkeye's cheek, then left the door closed behind her.

"You ok?" Hawkeye sat on her bed, running a hand through his hair. "Did you have a nightmare?"

Erin may have been a child, but she was not stupid. Seven year olds know a lot more than adults think, and never underestimate a child's intuition. Erin had a sixth sense, let's call it, for her faux-uncle and aunt. "Why don't you love Aunt Margaret?"

Man, this kid was blunt. "You remind me of your dad, you know that?" He shifted, leaning up against the wall. Was he crazy to spill his guts out to a seven-year old? Who knows. "Well, the thing is, and don't tell anyone I said this, but…yeah…I kind of like her."

Erin's squeals were so loud Hawkeye flinched.

"YAY! Ooh, can I help you propose? Pretty pretty please?" Erin grabbed onto Hawkeye's arm and gave him her cutest smile, while Hawkeye tried not to look too shocked.

Hawkeye raised his hands up in surrender and pleading for a moment of silence. "Erin, Erin. She doesn't even know."

Erin cocked her head. "Why haven't you told her?" TO Erin, it didn't make much sense. Unless she had an evil step-mother, she was going to be poisoned by an apple, or was secretly a mermaid, why hadn't he told her? Fairytales don't lie, didn't Hawkeye know that? "How long have you liked her?"

Hawkeye turned to face the young girl, his eyes filled with frustrated, sad exhaustion. "I've liked–loved her for years, how do you even tell someone that?" The strange thing was, Hawkeye was actually looking for an answer.

Erin shrugged. She felt pretty important helping Hawkeye like this, and could just imagine them toasting her at their wedding. "She hasn't married someone else, right? That means she still likes you."

"What do you mean?"

Erin raised an eyebrow and tried to look like her mother. "Sleeping Beauty waited a HUNDRED YEARS for her Prince Charming. It's like at school, I have to wait for boys to like me." Erin smiled brightly, revealing a gap where one of her bottom teeth should be. "I like this boy, Adam, so I asked him to play tag with me, then the next day he asked me to play kickball. See? I had to wait a WHOLE DAY for him to ask me to play. Don't make her wait longer."

_Did…_

_Did my niece just give me better relationship advice than every sappy romance movie that was ever made?_

Hawkeye took Erin's small, fragile hand in his own. "Erin, that is some wonderful advice. Should I tell Margaret tonight?"

Erin turned to her clock quickly, then back to him. "It's only 10:36, it's still Valentine's Day!"

Hawkeye smiled, reached over and grabbed Erin ins a huge hug. "Thanks, kid. You're a lot smarter than most people I know."

"Really?" Erin asked, resting her head on Hawkeye's shoulder. "You think?"

"Yup. Happy Valentine's Day, Erin."

"Happy Valentine's Day."

He gave her one last squeeze, turned out her book light, waved, and left. He shut her pink-and-purple door as quietly as possible, then walked downstairs. But as soon as he hit the hardwood of the first floor, butterflies were dumped into his stomach. Five years since the end of the war…that's a long time to be in love without telling the person. How would she take this? How would he _say _this?

_Don't make her wait longer._

Hawkeye found Margaret standing in the kitchen, in her pink pastel pajamas, leaning against the counter and looking out the window. She was _gorgeous. _"Come here often?" he quipped, somehow without cracking his voice. "Hey, uh, Margaret, can I…talk…can we talk?"

Margaret turned to him, the only light shining on her face was from the moon outside. "Sure, are you ok? Is Erin alright?"

"Erin's fine, yeah. Look…" he walked over to her, anxiety pouring onto his shoulders with every step until he was directly in front of her. "…I don't know how to say this, but I don't have much of a choice."

Margaret looked into his eyes, hoping for some kind of a warning for whatever bomb he was about to drop on her. And goodness knows she hated bombs. "Pierce, what is it?"

It only took a moment for him to press his lips to hers.

And it only took another moment for her to kiss him back.

Despite questions she had to ask him burning in her head, she couldn't stop kissing him. She wrapped her arms tightly around her neck and pulled him deeper, down to her level until she had to breathe…then kissed him again.

"Margaret…" he had to talk between kisses. "I…need to…tell you…"

_WAIT…_

It finally hit her. He was going to say _it. _He was going to tell her he loved her. With a small gasp, she pulled away. "Hawk…"

"I love you." He got the words out like a firecracker.

Silence.

Pure, unbroken silence. It was clear as day, dark as night. White as snow, light as air. Neither could say a word. Margaret didn't say anything. How could she? She'd been waiting to hear those words for _five years. _That's 1825 days. That's a really, really long time! How could she just answer? Sure, she had an answer. Yes. Or, 'I love you too.' Whatever was an affirmation of her feelings, that was the answer. But now, with her heart drumming steadily in her throat, no words were coming.

"Margaret?" His voice was quiet and sheepish, like a child who'd done something wrong. "Can you get the rejection done a little fas–"

She had her hands on his neck, pulling his lips against hers before he could finish the sentence.

They were together. She no longer had to dream about kissing him, she could walk across a room and just do it. She didn't have to worry about other women looking at him, he was hers. She could stop thinking about her future alone, she had him.

"I…love…you…too…" she murmured into his lips. Before she could pull him any closer, he broke the kiss.

"You…you love me?" A grin was threatening to take over his lips as he tried to keep his hopes down. "I've waited for five years for you to tell me this, so don't–"

"Hawkeye." Margaret slipped her arms around his neck, lazily resting them on his shoulders the way she'd dreamed of so many times. "Yes. I really, really love you. For five years I've loved you, I just…"

"…didn't know how to say it? Yeah, I have an idea how that feels," he quipped. A sly grin came over his face as he leaned into her embrace, letting his lips lightly touch hers as he spoke. "I love you."

"I love you." She moved forward just enough to connect the kiss.

Upstairs, Erin sat on her bed, drowsy with lack of sleep, after all, she was only seven. Still, she reached over to her nightstand, finding a framed picture of her family, Hawkeye and Margaret included. She smiled at the far right of the snapshot, where Hawkeye had his arm snug around Margaret's waist.

"Happy Valentine's Day, guys."

THE END


End file.
